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This morning, Twitter deployed its new site redesign, bringing the look and feel of the site up to date with modern design language tendencies. As you browse the site, you'll notice that the font is changed, your profile image and cover photo now appear at the top-left of the screen when perusing your timeline, and flat design elements are now in play. It looks good, and is a big improvement in my mind when compared to the previous design, as subtle as the changes are. It's also good to see the continuance of the flat design look that has been adopted by iOS 7, Facebook, and Windows Phone making its way through more tech companies.

All that said, it isn't enough to pull us away from our beloved Tweetbot, our preferred way of using Twitter. What about you? What do you think of the changes?

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Facebook has released its new Facebook Paper app, a free version of Facebook that introduces new ways of interacting with the social network. Similar to the popular Flipbook app, Facebook Paper is centered around eye-catching, full-screen images, and gesture-based navigation, bringing the topics and people you care about most to the forefront.

A product of Facebook Creative Labs, Paper looks great, and could likely replace the default Facebook app for most users, what with its magazine-style layout. To get users acquainted, Facebook Paper launches with a gesture tutorial, helping you become familiar with the new way of interacting with Facebook. It's a bold move, but it works. Facebook needs to constantly monitor the pain points that its users experience when using the service, especially on mobile. Paper solves a lot of those issues that the common Facebook user encounters in the more bloated full app, bringing a simple elegance and sense of ease with it.

If you own an Android phone, you can now get in on the Vine action that iPhone users have had access to for over four months now. The app is Twitter's answer to video sharing, allowing users to share six-second video snippets with each other. Interestingly, the iOS version and Android versions each have features that the other doesn't. For example, the iOS version includes support for the front-facing camera, mentions, hashtags, and search. The Android version doesn't--but it does have a zoom feature, something that's not found in iOS.

Vine for Android works with any device running Android 4.0 or higher, and you can download it now from the Google Play Store.

Tweetbot for Mac has been updated to version 1.3, which mostly carries over a lot of the recent features introduced in Tweetbot for iOS. This includes things like media view, and support for the Twitter cover images on profile pages. Here's the full list:

New media timeline. Type command f and switch to the media view (next to the search box).

New look for Tweet detail including retweet and favorite counts.

Profile Cover Image support.

Double clicking titlebar above a profile view will scroll profile back to top. Double clicking again will scroll their timeline/mentions/faves to the top.

Twitter for iPhone 5.7 has been released, bringing with it improved photo sharing and a preview of what your media- and metadata-filled tweets will look like prior to you posting them, so you can get them juuust right. The Twitter timeline also gets a makeover, now being wider and easier to read throughout the app. You'll also now receive a notification whenever a friend of yours joins Twitter (we aren't sure how that one works,) alongside all the typical bug fixes and code optimizations. You can download Twitter for iPhone now.

Twitter has updated the official Twitter for Mac app for the first time since June 2011, surprising many Mac users in the process, many of whom thought the app was essentially dead. Instead, along with the listed new features and improvements, Twitter's Ben Sandofsky has also announced that the will be working on Twitter for Mac full-time, and that there are more cool updates to come.

P.S. I'm taking a break from iOS to work on Twitter for Mac full time.

Here are the changes you'll find in todays Twitter for Mac 2.2 release:

Photos: It’s easier than ever to share photos. Simply click the camera icon in the lower-left corner of the Tweet compose box, and choose a photo to share. If you prefer, you can still drag and drop photos from the desktop.

Retina display support: Now Twitter is even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks. With this update, Tweets will be clearer and sharper, creating a more vivid experience.

The fine folks at Tapbots have updated their popular iOS twitter client, Tweetbot, to version 2.8 for iOS. The update adds a new tab specifically for media timeline consumption, showing just the images and videos from those you follow. Additionally, you can now swipe right to left on any given tweet to reveal retweets and the number of users who favorited. Viewing photos has been made frictionless by eliminating the transition to another screen, much like the image viewer behavior of Tweetbot for OS X. Direct Tweetbot download links here: iPad and iPhone / iPod Touch.

What's New in Version 2.8

New media timeline. Scroll to the top of a timeline and switch to the new media view (next to the search box). This view displays only supported image and video tweets.

The rumored Twitter Music service has become a reality, launching this morning. Twitter #music seems to be a natural step for the service, which sees hundreds of millions of users regularly discussing music on the service, as well as a bunch of popular musicians as well. Twitter #music aims to help you find music you'll like, based on your Twitter activity. You can access #music through a web browser, and there's also a new dedicated #music iOS app that lets you easily view and listen to music that's popular and trending on Twitter, undiscovered artists, music that it knows you like, and a #NowPlaying area that shows what others are listening to.

One important note here is that Twitter #music isn't a streaming music service. Instead, it's a layer that allows you to access your Rdio, Spotify, and iTunes tracks, using Twitter #music as your navigation mechanism. You simply connect your accounts to #music, and you are all set. The iOS app is slick, and we hear the Android version will be on its way soon. You can download Twitter #music for iPhone now.

Facebook has updated its iOS app to version 6.0 and has introduced two new features that are from the Facebook Home experience: Chat heads and stickers. Basically, chat heads are avatar icons of Facebook friends. They take up a small part of the screen whenever a user is messaging another Facebook friend, no matter where the user happens to be in the app. We assume that the goal is for it to be a frictionless experience when communicating with others friends; rather than having the chat feature limited to silos or in sections within the app. Along with the update, Facebook added a sticker feature, like emoticons, while messaging, seemingly aimed at teens and adults who might never publicly admit that they like the feature. Facebook for the iPad also sees a News Feed redesign that is cleaner with a bolder, more legible typeface. Gear Live tip: users might have to delete the old version first, or reboot the iDevice, in order to activate these new features now since Facebook is slowly rolling the feature out to users. Facebook 6.0 for iOS is now available in the App Store.